A C T S.

CHAP. VII.

When our Lord Jesus called his apostles out to be
employed in services and sufferings for him, he told them that yet
the last should be first, and the first last, which was remarkably
fulfilled in St. Stephen and St. Paul, who were both of them late
converts, in comparison of the apostles, and yet got the start of
them both in services and sufferings; for God, in conferring
honours and favours, often crosses hands. In this chapter we have
the martyrdom of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church,
who led the van in the noble army. And therefore his sufferings and
death are more largely related than those of any other, for
direction and encouragement to all those who are called out to
resist unto blood, as he did. Here is, I. His defence of himself
before the council, in answer to the matters and things he stood
charged with, the scope of which is to show that it was no
blasphemy against God, nor any injury at all to the glory of his
name, to say that the temple should be destroyed and the customs of
the ceremonial law changed. And, 1. He shows this by going over the
history of the Old Testament, and observing that God never intended
to confine his favours to that place, or that ceremonial law; and
that they had no reason to expect he should, for the people of the
Jews had always been a provoking people, and had forfeited the
privileges of their peculiarity: nay, that that holy place and that
law were but figures of good things to come, and it was no
disparagement at all to them to say that they must give place to
better things, ver. 1-50.
And then, 2. He applies this to those that prosecuted him, and sat
in judgment upon him, sharply reproving them for their wickedness,
by which they had brought upon themselves the ruin of their place
and nation, and then could not bear to hear of it, ver. 51-53. II. The putting of him
to death by stoning him, and his patient, cheerful, pious
submission to it, ver.
54-60.

Stephen's Address.

1 Then said the high priest, Are these things
so? 2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The
God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in
Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3 And said unto
him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come
into the land which I shall show thee. 4 Then came he out of
the land of the Chaldæans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence,
when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye
now dwell. 5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not
so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would
give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when
as yet he had no child. 6 And God spake on this wise,
That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they
should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four
hundred years. 7 And the nation to whom they shall be in
bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come
forth, and serve me in this place. 8 And he gave him the
covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and
circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and
Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. 9 And the
patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was
with him, 10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions,
and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of
Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and
Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he
sent out our fathers first. 13 And at the second time
Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was
made known unto Pharaoh. 14 Then sent Joseph, and called his
father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and
fifteen souls. 15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died,
he, and our fathers, 16 And were carried over into Sychem,
and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of
the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

Stephen is now at the bar before the great
council of the nation, indicted for blasphemy: what the witnesses
swore against him we had an account of in the foregoing chapter,
that he spoke blasphemous words against Moses and God; for he spoke
against this holy place and the law. Now here,

I. The high priest calls upon him to answer
for himself, v. 1. He
was president, and, as such, the mouth of the court, and therefore
he saith, "You, the prisoner at the bar, you hear what is sworn
against you; what do you say to it? Are these things so?
Have you ever spoken any words to this purport? If you have, will
you recant them, or will you stand to them? Guilty or not
guilty?" This carried a show of fairness, and yet seems to have
been spoken with an air of haughtiness; and thus far he seems to
have prejudged the cause, that, if it were so, that he had spoken
such and such words, he shall certainly be adjudged a blasphemer,
whatever he may offer in justification or explanation of them.

II. He begins his defence, and it is long;
but it should seem by his breaking off abruptly, just when he came
to the main point (v.
50), that it would have been much longer if his enemies
would have given him leave to say all he had to say. In general we
may observe,

1. That in this discourse he appears to be
a man ready and mighty in the scriptures, and thereby thoroughly
furnished for every good word and work. He can relate scripture
stories, and such as were very pertinent to his purpose, off-hand
without looking in his Bible. He was filled with the Holy
Ghost, not so much to reveal to him new things, or open to him
the secret counsels and decrees of God concerning the Jewish
nation, with them to convict these gainsayers; no, but to bring to
his remembrance the scriptures of the Old Testament, and to teach
him how to make use of them for their conviction. Those that are
full of the Holy Ghost will be full of the scripture, as Stephen
was.

2. That he quotes the scriptures according
to the Septuagint translation, by which it appears he was one of
the Hellenist Jews, who used that version in their synagogues. His
following this, occasions divers variations from the Hebrew
original in this discourse, which the judges of the court did not
correct, because they knew how he was led into them; nor is it any
derogation to the authority of that Spirit by which he spoke, for
the variations are not material. We have a maxim, Apices juris
non sunt jura—Mere points of law are not law itself. These verses carry on this his
compendium of church history to the end of the book of Genesis.
Observe,

(1.) His preface: Men, brethren, and
fathers, hearken. He gives them, though not flattering titles,
yet civil and respectful ones, signifying his expectation of fair
treatment with them; from men he hopes to be treated with humanity,
and he hopes that brethren and fathers will use him in a fatherly
brotherly way. They are ready to look upon him as an apostate from
the Jewish church, and an enemy to them. But, to make way for their
conviction to the contrary, he addresses himself to them as men,
brethren, and fathers, resolving to look on himself as one of
them, though they would not so look on him. He craves their
attention: Hearken; though he was about to tell them what
they already knew, yet he begs them to hearken to it, because,
though they knew it all, yet they would not without a very close
application of mind know how to apply it to the case before
them.

(2.) His entrance upon the discourse, which
(whatever it may seem to those that read it carelessly) is far from
being a long ramble only to amuse the hearers, and give them a
diversion by telling them an old story. No; it is all pertinent and
ad rem—to the purpose, to show them that God had no this
heart so much upon that holy place and the law as they had; but, as
he had a church in the world many ages before that holy place was
founded and the ceremonial law given, so he would have when they
should both have had their period.

[1.] He begins with the call of Abraham out
of Ur of the Chaldees, by which he was set apart for God to be the
trustee of the promise, and the father of the Old-Testament church.
This we had an account of (Gen. xii.
1, &c.), and it is referred to, Neh. ix. 7, 8. His native country was an
idolatrous country, it was Mesopotamia, (v. 2), the land of the Chaldeans
(v. 4); thence God
brought him at two removes, not too far at once, dealing tenderly
with him; he first brought him out of the land of the Chaldeans to
Charran, or Haran, a place midway between that and Canaan
(Gen. xi. 31), and thence
five years after, when his father was dead, he removed him
into the land of Canaan, wherein you now dwell. It
should seem, the first time that God spoke to Abraham, he appeared
in some visible display of the divine presence, as the God of
glory (v. 2), to
settle a correspondence with him: and then afterwards he kept up
that correspondence, and spoke to him from time to time as there
was occasion, without repeating his visible appearances as the God
of glory.

First, From this call of Abraham we
may observe, 1. That in all our ways we must acknowledge God, and
attend the directions of his providence, as of the pillar of cloud
and fire. It is not said, Abraham removed, but, God removed him
into this land wherein you now dwell, and he did but follow his
Leader. 2. Those whom God takes into covenant with himself he
distinguishes from the children of this world; they are effectually
called out of the state, out of the land, of their nativity; they
must sit loose to the world, and live above it and every thing in
it, even that in it which is most dear to them, and must trust God
to make it up to them in another and better country, that is, the
heavenly, which he will show them. God's chosen must follow him
with an implicit faith and obedience.

Secondly, But let us see what this
is to Stephen's case. 1. They had charged him as a blasphemer of
God, and an apostate from the church; therefore he shows that he is
a son of Abraham, and values himself upon his being able to say,
Our father Abraham, and that he is a faithful worshipper of
the God of Abraham, whom therefore he here calls the God of
glory. He also shows that he owns divine revelation, and that
particularly by which the Jewish church was founded and
incorporated. 2. They were proud of their being circumcised; and
therefore he shows that Abraham was taken under God's guidance, and
into communion with him, before he was circumcised, for that was
not till v. 8. With
this argument Paul proves that Abraham was justified by faith,
because he was justified when he was in uncircumcision: and so
here. 3. They had a mighty jealousy for this holy place, which may
be meant of the whole land of Canaan; for it was called the holy
land, Immanuel's land; and the destruction of the holy house
inferred that of the holy land. "Now," says Stephen, "you need not
be so proud of it; for," (1.) "You came originally out of Ur of
the Chaldees, where your fathers served other gods
(Josh. xxiv. 2), and you
were not the first planters of this country. Look therefore unto
the rock whence you were hewn, and the holy of the pit out of which
you were digged;" that is, as it follows there, "look unto
Abraham your father, for I called him alone (Isa. li. 1, 2)—think of the
meanness of your beginnings, and how you are entirely indebted to
divine grace, and then you will see boasting to be for ever
excluded. It was God that raised up the righteous man from
the east, and called him to his foot. Isa. xli. 2. But, if his seed degenerate, let
them know that God can destroy this holy place, and raise up to
himself another people, for he is not a debtor to them." (2.) "God
appeared in his glory to Abraham a great way off in Mesopotamia,
before he came near Canaan, nay, before he dwelt in Charran; so
that you must not think God's visits are confined to this
land; no; he that brought the seed of the church from a country
so far east can, if he pleases, carry the fruit of it to another
country as far west." (3.) "God made no haste to bring him into
this land, but let him linger some years by the way, which shows
that God has not his heart so much upon this land as you have
yours, neither is his honour, nor the happiness of his people,
bound up in it. It is therefore neither blasphemy nor treason to
say, It shall be destroyed,"

[2.] The unsettled state of Abraham and his
seed for many ages after he was called out of Ur of the Chaldees.
God did indeed promise that he would give it to him for a
possession, and to his seed after him, v. 5. But, First, As yet he had no
child, nor any by Sarah for many years after. Secondly,
He himself was but a stranger and a sojourner in that land, and God
gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his
foot on; but there he was as in a strange country, where he was
always upon the remove, and could call nothing his own.
Thirdly, His posterity did not come to the possession of it
for a long time: After four hundred years they shall come
and serve me in this place, and not till then, v. 7. Nay, Fourthly, They
must undergo a great deal of hardship and difficulty before they
shall be put into the possession of that land: they shall be
brought into bondage, and ill treated in a strange land: and this,
not as the punishment of any particular sin, as their wandering in
the wilderness was, for we never find any such account given of
their bondage in Egypt; but so God had appointed, and it must be.
And at the end of four hundred years, reckoning from the
birth of Isaac, that nation to whom they shall be in bondage
will I judge, saith God. Now this teaches us, 1. That known
unto God are all his works beforehand. When Abraham had neither
inheritance nor heir, yet he was told he should have both, the one
a land of promise, and the other a child of promise; and therefore
both had, and received, by faith. 2. That God's promises, though
they are slow, are sure in the operation of them; they will be
fulfilled in the season of them, though perhaps not so soon as we
expect. 3. That though the people of God may be in distress and
trouble for a time, yet God will at length both rescue them and
reckon with those that do oppress them; for, verily there is a
God that judgeth in the earth.

But let us see how this serves Stephen's
purpose. 1. The Jewish nation, for the honour of which they were so
jealous, was very inconsiderable in its beginnings; as their common
father Abraham was fetched out of obscurity in Ur of the Chaldees,
so their tribes, and the heads of them, were fetched out of
servitude in Egypt, when they were the fewest of all people,Deut. vii. 7. And what need
is there of so much ado, as if their ruin, when they bring it upon
themselves by sin, must be the ruin of the world, and of all God's
interests in it? No; he that brought them out of Egypt can bring
them into it again, as he threatened (Deut. xxviii. 68), and yet be no loser, while
he can out of stones raise up children unto Abraham. 2. The slow
steps by which the promise made to Abraham advanced towards the
performance, and the many seeming contradictions here taken notice
of, plainly show that it had a spiritual meaning, and that the land
principally intended to be conveyed and secured by it was the
better country, that is, the heavenly; as the apostle shows
from this very argument that the patriarchs sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, thence inferring that
they looked for a city that had foundations, Heb. xi. 9, 10. It was therefore
no blasphemy to say, Jesus shall destroy this place, when at
the same time we say, "He shall lead us to the heavenly Canaan, and
put us in possession of that, of which the earthly Canaan was but a
type and figure."

[3.] The building up of the family of
Abraham, with the entail of divine grace upon it, and the disposals
of divine Providence concerning it, which take up the rest of the
book of Genesis.

First, God engaged to be a God to
Abraham and his seed; and, in token of this, appointed that he and
his male seed should be circumcised, Gen. xvii. 9, 10. He gave him the
covenant of circumcision, that is, the covenant of which
circumcision was the seal; and accordingly, when Abraham had a son
born, he circumcised him the eighth day (v. 8), by which he was both bound by the
divine law and interested in the divine promise; for circumcision
had reference to both, being a seal of the covenant both on God's
part—I will be to thee a God all-sufficient, and on man's
part—Walk before me, and be thou perfect. And then when
effectual care was thus taken for the securing of Abraham's seed,
to be a seed to serve the Lord, they began to multiply:
Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs, or roots
of the respective tribes.

Secondly, Joseph, the darling and
blessing of his father's house, was abused by his brethren; they
envied him because of his dreams, and sold him into
Egypt. Thus early did the children of Israel begin to grudge
those among them that were eminent and outshone others, of which
their enmity to Christ, who, like Joseph, was a Nazarite among
his brethren, was a great instance.

Thirdly, God owned Joseph in his
troubles, and was with him (Gen.
xxxix. 2, 21), by the influence of his Spirit, both on
his mind, giving him comfort, and on the minds of those he was
concerned with, giving him favour in their eyes. And thus at length
he delivered him out of his afflictions, and Pharaoh made
him the second man in the kingdom, Ps. cv. 20-22. And thus he not only
arrived at great preferment among the Egyptians, but became the
shepherd and stone of Israel, Gen. xlix. 24.

Fourthly, Jacob was compelled to go
down into Egypt, by a famine which forced him out of Canaan, a
dearth (which was a great affliction), to that degree
that our fathers found no sustenance in Canaan, v. 11. That fruitful land
was turned into barrenness. But, hearing that there was corn
in Egypt (treasured up by the wisdom of his own son), he
sent out our fathers first to fetch corn, v. 12. And the second time that
they went, Joseph, who at first made himself strange to them, made
himself known to them, and it was notified to Pharaoh that they
were Joseph's kindred and had a dependence upon him (v. 13), whereupon, with
Pharaoh's leave, Joseph sent for his father Jacob to him into
Egypt, with all his kindred and family, to the number of
seventy-five souls, to be subsisted there, v. 13. In Genesis they are said
to be seventy souls, Gen. xlvi.
27. But the Septuagint there makes them seventy-five,
and Stephen or Luke follows that version, as Luke iii. 36, where Cainan is inserted, which
is not in the Hebrew text, but in the Septuagint. Some, by
excluding Joseph and his sons, who were in Egypt before (which
reduces the number to sixty-four), and adding the sons of the
eleven patriarch, make the number seventy-five.

Fifthly, Jacob and his sons died in
Egypt (v. 15), but
were carried over to be buried in Canaan, v. 16. A very considerable difficulty
occurs here: it is said, They were carried over into Sychem,
whereas Jacob was buried not in Sychem, but near Hebron, in the
cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Isaac were buried, Gen. l. 13. Joseph's bones indeed
were buried in Sychem (Josh. xxiv.
32), and it seems by this (though it is not mentioned in
the story) that the bones of all the other patriarchs were carried
with his, each of them giving the same commandment concerning them
that he had done; and of them this must be understood, not of Jacob
himself. But then the sepulchre in Sychem was bought by Jacob
(Gen. xxxiii. 19), and by
this it is described, Josh. xxiv.
32. How then is it here said to be bought by Abraham?
Dr. Whitby's solution of this is very sufficient. He supplies it
thus: Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our
fathers; and (our fathers) were carried over into
Sychem; and he, that is, Jacob, was laid in the
sepulchre that Abraham brought for a sum of money, Gen. xxiii. 16. (Or, they were laid
there, that is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) And they,
namely, the other patriarchs, were buried in the sepulchre
bought of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.

Let us now see what this is to Stephen's
purpose. 1. He still reminds them of the mean beginning of the
Jewish nation, as a check to their priding themselves in the
glories of that nation; and that it was by a miracle of mercy that
they were raised up out of nothing to what they were, from so small
a number to be so great a nation; but, if they answer not the
intention of their being so raised, they can expect no other than
to be destroyed. The prophets frequently put them in mind of the
bringing of them out of Egypt, as a aggravation of their contempt
of the law of God, and here it is urged upon them as an aggravation
of their contempt of the gospel of Christ. 2. He reminds them
likewise of the wickedness of those that were the patriarchs of
their tribes, in envying their brother Joseph, and selling him into
Egypt; and the same spirit was still working in them towards Christ
and his ministers. 3. Their holy land, which they doted so much
upon, their fathers were long kept out of the possession of, and
met with dearth and great affliction in it; and therefore let them
not think it strange if, after it has been so long polluted with
sin, it be at length destroyed. 4. The faith of the patriarchs in
desiring to be buried in the land of Canaan plainly showed that
they had an eye to the heavenly country, to which it was the design
of this Jesus to lead them.

Stephen's Address.

17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh,
which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in
Egypt, 18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil
entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children,
to the end they might not live. 20 In which time Moses was
born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's
house three months: 21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's
daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. 22
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was
mighty in words and in deeds. 23 And when he was full forty
years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the
children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them suffer
wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed,
and smote the Egyptian: 25 For he supposed his brethren
would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them:
but they understood not. 26 And the next day he showed
himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one
again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to
another? 27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him
away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28
Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land
of Madian, where he begat two sons.

Stephen here goes on to relate,

I. The wonderful increase of the people of
Israel in Egypt; it was by a wonder of providence that in a little
time they advanced from a family into a nation. 1. It was when
the time of the promise drew nigh—the time when they were to
be formed into a people. During the first two hundred and fifteen
years after the promise made to Abraham, the children of the
covenant were increased but to seventy; but in the latter two
hundred and fifteen years they increased to six hundred thousand
fighting men. The motion of providence is sometimes quickest when
it comes nearest the centre. Let us not be discouraged at the
slowness of the proceedings towards the accomplishment of God's
promises; God knows how to redeem the time that seems to have been
lost, and, when the year of the redeemed is at hand, can do
a double work in a single day. 2. It was in Egypt, where
they were oppressed, and ruled with rigour; when their lives were
made so bitter to them that, one would think, they should have
wished to be written childless, yet they married, in faith that God
in due time would visit them; and God blessed them, who thus
honoured him, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply. Suffering
times have often been growing times with the church.

II. The extreme hardships which they
underwent there, v. 18,
19. When the Egyptians observed them to increase in
number they increased their burdens, in which Stephen observes
three things:—1. Their base ingratitude: They were oppressed by
another king that knew not Joseph, that is, did not consider
the good service that Joseph had done to that nation; for, if he
had, he would not have made so ill a requital to his relations and
family. Those that injure good people are very ungrateful, for they
are the blessings of the age and place they live in. 2. Their
hellish craft and policy: They dealt subtly with our kindred.
Come on, said they, let us deal wisely, thinking thereby
to secure themselves, but it proved dealing foolishly, for they did
but treasure up wrath by it. Those are in a great mistake who think
they deal wisely for themselves when they deal deceitfully or
unmercifully with their brethren. 3. Their barbarous and inhuman
cruelty. That they might effectually extirpate them, they cast
out their young children, to the end they might not live. The
killing of their infant seed seemed a very likely way to crush an
infant nation. Now Stephen seems to observe this to them, not only
that they might further see how mean their beginnings were, fitly
represented (perhaps with an eye to the exposing of the young
children in Egypt) by the forlorn state of a helpless, out-cast
infant (Ezek. xvi. 4), and
how much they were indebted to God for his care of them, which they
had forfeited, and made themselves unworthy of: but also that they
might consider that what they were now doing against the Christian
church in its infancy was as impious and unjust, and would be in
the issue as fruitless and ineffectual, as that was which the
Egyptians did against the Jewish church in its infancy. "You think
you deal subtly in your ill treatment of us, and, in persecuting
young converts, you do as they did in casting out the young
children; but you will find it is to no purpose, in spite of your
malice Christ's disciples will increase and multiply."

III. The raising up of Moses to be their
deliverer. Stephen was charged with having spoken blasphemous
words against Moses, in answer to which charge he here speaks very
honourably of him. 1. Moses was born when the persecution of Israel
was at the hottest, especially in that most cruel instance of it,
the murdering of the new-born children: At that time, Moses was
born (v. 20), and
was himself in danger, as soon as he came into the world (as our
Saviour also was at Bethlehem) of falling a sacrifice to that
bloody edict. God is preparing for his people's deliverance, when
their way is darkest, and their distress deepest. 2. He was
exceedingly fair; his face began to shine as soon as he was
born, as a happy presage of the honour God designed to put upon
him; he was asteios to Theo—fair towards God;
he was sanctified from the womb, and this made him beautiful in
God's eyes; for it is the beauty of holiness that is in God's sight
of great price. 3. He was wonderfully preserved in his infancy,
first, by the care of his tender parents, who nourished him
three months in their own house, as long as they durst; and
then by a favourable providence that threw him into the arms of
Pharaoh's daughter, who took him up, and nourished him as her own
son (v. 21); for
those whom God designs to make special use of he will take special
care of. And did he thus protect the child Moses? Much more will he
secure the interests of his holy child Jesus (as he is called
ch. iv. 27) from
the enemies that are gathered together against him. 4. He
became a great scholar (v.
22): He was learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, who were then famed for all manner of polite
literature, particularly philosophy, astronomy, and (which perhaps
helped to lead them to idolatry) hieroglyphics. Moses, having his
education at court, had opportunity of improving himself by the
best books, tutors, and conversation, in all the arts and sciences,
and had a genius for them. Only we have reason to think that he had
not so far forgotten the God of his fathers as to acquaint himself
with the unlawful studies and practices of the magicians of Egypt,
any further than was necessary to the confuting of them. 5. He
became a prime minister of state in Egypt. This seems to be meant
by his being mighty in words and deeds. Though he had not a
ready way of expressing himself, but stammered, yet he spoke
admirably good sense, and every thing he said commanded assent, and
carried its own evidence and force of reason along with it; and, in
business, none went on with such courage, and conduct, and success.
Thus was he prepared, by human helps, for those services, which,
after all, he could not be thoroughly furnished for without divine
illumination. Now, by all this, Stephen will make it appear that,
notwithstanding the malicious insinuations of his persecutors, he
had as high and honourable thoughts of Moses as they had.

IV. The attempts which Moses made to
deliver Israel, which they spurned, and would not close in with.
This Stephen insists much upon, and it serves for a key to this
story (Exod. ii. 11-15),
as does also that other construction which is put upon it by the
apostle, Heb. xi.
24-26. There it is represented as an act of holy
self-denial, here as a designed prelude to, or entrance upon, the
public service he was to be called out to (v. 23): When he was full forty years
old, in the prime of his time for preferment in the court of
Egypt, it came into his heart (for God put it there) to
visit his brethren the children of Israel, and to see which way
he might do them any service; and he showed himself as a public
person, with a public character. 1. As Israel's saviour. This he
gave a specimen of in avenging an oppressed Israelite, and killing
the Egyptian that abused him (v.
24). Seeing one of his brethren suffer wrong, he
was moved with compassion towards the sufferer, and a just
indignation at the wrong-doer, as men in public stations should be,
and he avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the
Egyptian, which, if he had been only a private person, he could
not lawfully have done; but he knew that his commission from heaven
would bear him out, and he supposed that his brethren (who
could not but have some knowledge of the promise made to Abraham,
that the nation that should oppress them God would judge) would
have understood that God by his hand would deliver them; for he
could not have had either presence of mind or strength of body to
do what he did, if he had not been clothed with such a divine power
as evinced a divine authority. If they had but understood the signs
of the times, they might have taken this for the dawning of the day
of their deliverance; but they understood not, they did not
take this, as it was designed, for the setting up of a standard,
and sounding of a trumpet, to proclaim Moses their
deliverer. 2. As Israel's judge. This he gave a specimen of,
the very next day, in offering to accommodate matters
between two contending Hebrews, wherein he plainly assumed a public
character (v. 26):
He showed himself to them as they strove, and, putting on an
air of majesty and authority, he would have set them at one
again, and as their prince have determined the controversy
between them, saying, Sirs, you are brethren, by birth and
profession of religion; why do you wrong one to another? For
he observed that (as in most strifes) there was a fault on both
sides; and therefore, in order to peace and friendship, there must
be a mutual remission and condescension. When Moses was to be
Israel's deliverer out of Egypt, he slew the Egyptians, and so
delivered Israel out of their hands; but, when he was to be
Israel's judge and lawgiver, he ruled them with the golden sceptre,
not the iron rod; he did not kill and slay them when they strove,
but gave them excellent laws and statutes, and decided upon their
complaints and appeals made to him, Exod. xviii. 16. But the contending
Israelite that was most in the wrong thrust him away
(v. 27), would not
bear the reproof, though a just and gentle one, but was ready to
fly in his face, with, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over
us? Proud and litigious spirits are impatient of check and
control. Rather would these Israelites have their bodies ruled with
rigour by their task-masters than be delivered, and have their
minds ruled with reason, by their deliverer. The wrong-doer was so
enraged at the reproof given him that he upbraided Moses with the
service he had done to their nation in killing the Egyptian, which,
if they had pleased, would have been the earnest of further and
greater service: Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian
yesterday? v. 28,
charging that upon him as his crime, and threatening to accuse him
for it, which was the hanging out of the flag of defiance to the
Egyptians, and the banner of love and deliverance to Israel.
Hereupon Moses fled into the land of Midian, and made no
further attempt to deliver Israel till forty years after; he
settled as a stranger in Midian, married, and had two sons, by
Jethro's daughter, v.
29.

Now let us see how this serves Stephen's
purpose. 1. They charged him with blaspheming Moses, in answer to
which he retorts upon them the indignities which their fathers did
to Moses, which they ought to be ashamed of, and humbled for,
instead of picking quarrels thus, under pretence of zeal for the
honour of Moses, with one that had as great a veneration for him as
any of them had. 2. They persecuted him for disputing in defence of
Christ and his gospel, in opposition to which they set up Moses and
his law: "But," saith he, "you had best take heed," (1.) "Lest you
hereby do as your fathers did, refuse and reject one whom God
has raised up to be to you a prince and a Saviour; you may
understand, if you will not wilfully shut your eyes against the
light, that God will, by this Jesus, deliver you out of a worse
slavery than that in Egypt; take heed then of thrusting him away,
but receive him as a ruler and a judge over you." (2.) "Lest you
hereby fare as your fathers fared, who for this were very justly
left to die in their slavery, for the deliverance came not till
forty years after. This will be the issue of it, you put away the
gospel from you, and it will be sent to the Gentiles; you
will not have Christ, and you shall not have him, so shall your
doom be." Matt. xxiii. 38,
39.

Stephen's Address.

30 And when forty years were expired, there
appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the
Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw
it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold
it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, 32
Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses
trembled, and durst not behold. 33 Then said the Lord to
him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou
standest is holy ground. 34 I have seen, I have seen the
affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their
groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will
send thee into Egypt. 35 This Moses whom they refused,
saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send
to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which
appeared to him in the bush. 36 He brought them out, after
that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in
the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37 This is
that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall
the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me;
him shall ye hear. 38 This is he, that was in the church in
the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina,
and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to
give unto us: 39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but
thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again
into Egypt, 40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before
us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land
of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 41 And they made
a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and
rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

Stephen here proceeds in his story of
Moses; and let any one judge whether these are the words of one
that was a blasphemer of Moses or no; nothing could be spoken more
honourably of him. Here is,

I. The vision which he saw of the glory of
God at the bush (v.
30): When forty years had expired (during all
which time Moses was buried alive in Midian, and was now grown old,
and one would think past service), that it might appear that all
his performances were products of a divine power and promise (as it
appeared that Isaac was a child of promise by his being born of
parents stricken in years), now, at eighty years old, he enters
upon that post of honour to which he was born, in recompence for
his self-denial at forty years old. Observe, 1. Where God appeared
to him: In the wilderness of Mount Sinai, v. 30. And, when he appeared to him
there, that was holy ground (v.
33), which Stephen takes notice of, as a check to those
who prided themselves in the temple, that holy place, as if there
were no communion to be had with God but there; whereas God met
Moses, and manifested himself to him, in a remote obscure place in
the wilderness of Sinai. They deceive themselves if they think God
is confined to places; he can bring his people into a wilderness,
and there speak comfortably to them. 2. How he appeared to him:
In a flame of fire (for our God is a consuming fire), and
yet the bush, in which this fire was, though combustible
matter, was not consumed, which, as it represented the state
of Israel in Egypt (where, though they were in the fire of
affliction, yet they were not consumed), so perhaps it may be
looked upon as a type of Christ's incarnation, and the union
between the divine and human nature: God, manifested in the flesh,
was as the flame of fire manifested in the bush. 3. How Moses was
affected with this: (1.) He wondered at the sight, v. 31. It was a phenomenon with
the solution of which all his Egyptian learning could not furnish
him. He had the curiosity at first to pry into it: I will turn
aside now, and see this great sight; but the nearer he drew the
more he was struck with amazement; and, (2.) He trembled, and
durst not behold, durst not look stedfastly upon it; for he was
soon aware that it was not a fiery meteor, but the angel of the
Lord; and no other than the Angel of the covenant, the
Son of God himself. This set him a trembling. Stephen was accused
for blaspheming Moses and God (ch. vi. 11), as if Moses had been a
little god; but by this it appears that he was a man, subject to
like passions as we are, and particularly that of fear, upon
any appearance of the divine majesty and glory.

II. The declaration which he heard of the
covenant of God (v.
32): The voice of the Lord came to him; for faith
comes by hearing; and this was it: I am the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob; and therefore, 1. "I am the same that I was."
The covenant God made with Abraham some ages ago was, I will be
to thee a God, a God all-sufficient. "Now," saith God, "that
covenant is still in full force; it is not cancelled nor forgotten,
but I am, as I was, the God of Abraham, and now I will make it to
appear so;" for all the favours, all the honours God put upon
Israel, were founded upon this covenant with Abraham, and flowed
from it. 2. "I will be the same that I am." For if the death of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, cannot break the covenant-relation
between God and them (as by this it appears it cannot), then
nothing else can: and then he will be a God, (1.) To their souls,
which are now separated from their bodies. Our Saviour by this
proves the future state, Matt.
xxii. 31, 32. Abraham is dead, and yet God is still his
God, therefore Abraham is still alive. God never did that for him
in this world which would answer the true intent and full extent of
that promise, that he would be the God of Abraham; and therefore it
must be done for him in the other world. Now this is that life and
immortality which are brought to light by the gospel, for the full
conviction of the Sadducees, who denied it. Those therefore who
stood up in defence of the gospel, and endeavoured to propagate it,
were so far from blaspheming Moses that they did the greatest
honour imaginable to Moses, and that glorious discovery which God
made of himself to him at the bush. (2.) To their seed. God, in
declaring himself thus the God of their fathers, intimated his
kindness to their seed, that they should be beloved for the
fathers' sakes, Rom. xi.
28; Deut. vii. 8. Now the preachers of the gospel
preached up this covenant, the promise made of God unto the
fathers; unto which promise those of the twelve tribes
that did continue serving God hoped to come, ch. xxvi. 6, 7. And shall
they, under colour of supporting the holy place and the law, oppose
the covenant which was made with Abraham and his seed, his
spiritual seed, before the law was given, and long before the holy
place was built? Since God's glory must be for ever advanced, and
our glorying for ever silenced, God will have our salvation to be
by promise, and not by the law; the Jews therefore who persecuted
the Christians, under pretence that they blasphemed the law, did
themselves blaspheme the promise, and forsook all their own mercies
that were contained in it.

III. The commission which God gave him to
deliver Israel out of Egypt. The Jews set up Moses in competition
with Christ, and accused Stephen as a blasphemer because he did not
do so too. But Stephen here shows that Moses was an eminent type of
Christ, as he was Israel's deliverer. When God had declared himself
the God of Abraham he proceeded, 1. To order Moses into a reverent
posture: "Put off thy shoes from thy feet. Enter not upon
sacred things with low, and cold, and common thoughts. Keep thy
foot, Eccl. v. 1. Be not
hasty and rash in thy approaches to God; tread softly." 2. To order
Moses into a very eminent service. When he is ready to receive
commands, he shall have commission. He is commissioned to demand
leave from Pharaoh for Israel to go out of his land, and to enforce
that demand, v. 34.
Observe, (1.) The notice God took both of their sufferings and of
their sense of their sufferings: I have seen, I have seen their
affliction, and have heard their groaning. God has a
compassionate regard to the troubles of his church, and the groans
of his persecuted people; and their deliverance takes rise from his
pity. (2.) The determination he fixed to redeem them by the hand of
Moses: I am come down to deliver them. It should seem,
though God is present in all places, yet he uses that expression
here of coming down to deliver them because that deliverance was
typical of what Christ did, when, for us men, and for our
salvation, he came down from heaven; he that ascended first
descended. Moses is the man that must be employed: Come, and
I will send thee into Egypt: and, if God send him, he will own
him and give him success.

IV. His acting in pursuance of this
commission, wherein he was a figure of the Messiah. And Stephen
takes notice here again of the slights they had put upon him, the
affronts they had given him, and their refusal to have him to reign
over them, as tending very much to magnify his agency in their
deliverance. 1. God put honour upon him whom they put contempt upon
(v. 35): This
Moses whom they refused (whose kind offers and good offices
they rejected with scorn, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a
judge? Thou takest too much upon thee, thou son of Levi,Num. xvi. 3), this same
Moses did God send to be a ruler, and a deliverer, by the hand
of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. It may be
understood either that God sent to him by the hand of the angel
going along with him he became a complete deliverer. Now, by this
example, Stephen would intimate to the council that this Jesus
whom they now refused, as their fathers did Moses, saying,
Who made thee a prophet and a king? Who gave thee this
authority? even this same has God advanced to be a prince
and a Saviour, a ruler and a deliverer; as the apostles had
told them awhile ago (ch. v. 30,
31), that the stone which the builders refused was
become the head-stone in the corner, ch. iv. 11. 2. God showed favour to
them by him, and he was very forward to serve them, though they had
thrust him away. God might justly have refused them his service,
and he might justly have declined it; but it is all forgotten: they
are not so much as upbraided with it, v. 36. He brought them out,
notwithstanding, after he had shown wonders and signs in the
land of Egypt (which were afterwards continued for the
completing of their deliverance, according as the case called for
them) in the Red Sea and in the wilderness forty years. So
far is he from blaspheming Moses that he admires him as a glorious
instrument in the hand of God for the forming of the Old-Testament
church. But it does not at all derogate from his just honour to say
that he was but an instrument, and that he is outshone by this
Jesus, whom he encourages these Jews yet to close with, and to come
into his interest, not fearing but that then they should be
received into his favour, and receive benefit by him, as the people
of Israel were delivered by Moses, though they had once refused
him.

V. His prophecy of Christ and his grace,
v. 37. He not only
was a type of Christ (many were so that perhaps had not an actual
foresight of his day), but Moses spoke of him (v. 37): This is that Moses who said
unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God
raise up unto you of your brethren. This is spoken of as one of
the greatest honours God put upon him (nay, as that which exceeded
all the rest), that by him he gave notice to the children of Israel
of the great prophet that should come into the world, raised their
expectation of him, and required them to receive him. When his
bringing them out of Egypt is spoken of it is with an emphasis of
honour, This is that Moses, Exod. vi. 26. And so it is here, This is
that Moses. Now this is very full to Stephen's purpose; in
asserting that Jesus should change the customs of the ceremonial
law, he was so far from blaspheming Moses that really he did him
the greatest honour imaginable, by showing how the prophecy of
Moses was accomplished, which was so clear, that, as Christ told
them himself, If they had believed Moses, they would have
believed him, John v.
46. 1. Moses, in God's name, told them that, in the
fulness of time, they should have a prophet raised up among them,
one of their own nation, that should be like unto him (Deut. xviii. 15, 18),—a ruler
and a deliverer, a judge and a lawgiver, like him,—who should
therefore have authority to change the customs that he had
delivered, and to bring in a better hope, as the Mediator of a
better testament. 2. He charged them to hear that prophet, to
receive his dictates, to admit the change he would make in their
customs, and to submit to him in every thing; "and this will be the
greatest honour you can do to Moses and to his law, who said,
Hear you him; and came to be a witness to the repetition of
this charge by a voice from heaven, at the transfiguration
of Christ, and by his silence gave consent to it," Matt. xvii. 5.

VI. The eminent services which Moses
continued to do to the people of Israel, after he had been
instrumental to bring them out of Egypt, v. 38. And herein also he was a type of
Christ, who yet so far exceeds him that it is no blasphemy to say,
"He has authority to change the customs that Moses delivered." It
was the honour of Moses, 1. That he was in the church in the
wilderness; he presided in all the affairs of it for forty
years, was king in Jeshurun, Deut.
xxxiii. 5. The camp of Israel is here called the
church in the wilderness; for it was a sacred society,
incorporated by a divine charter under a divine government, and
blessed with divine revelation. The church in the wilderness was a
church, though it was not yet perfectly formed, as it was to be
when they came to Canaan, but every man did that which was right
in his own eyes, Deut. xii. 8,
9. It was the honour of Moses that he was in that
church, and many a time it had been destroyed if Moses had not been
in it to intercede for it. But Christ is the president and guide of
a more excellent and glorious church than that in the wilderness
was, and is more in it, as the life and soul of it, than Moses
could be in that. 2. That he was with the angel that spoke to
him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers—was with him in
the holy mount twice forty days, with the angel of the covenant,
Michael, our prince. Moses was immediately conversant with God, but
never lay in his bosom as Christ did from eternity. Or these words
may be taken thus: Moses was in the church in the
wilderness, but it was with the angel that spoke to him in
mount Sinai, that is, at the burning bush; for that was said to
be at mount Sinai (v.
30); that angel went before him, and was guide to him,
else he could not have been a guide to Israel; of this God speaks
(Exod. xxiii. 20), I
send an angel before thee, and Exod. xxxiii. 2. And see Num. xx. 16. He was in the church with the
angel, without whom he could have done no service to the church;
but Christ is himself that angel which was with the church in the
wilderness, and therefore has an authority above Moses. 3. That
he received the lively oracles to give unto them; not only
the ten commandments, but the other instructions which the Lord
spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak them to the children of Israel.
(1.) The words of God are oracles, certain and infallible,
and of unquestionable authority and obligation; they are to be
consulted as oracles, and by them all controversies must be
determined. (2.) They are lively oracles, for they are the
oracles of the living God, not of the dumb and dead idols of the
heathens: the word that God speaks is spirit and life; not that the
law of Moses could give life, but it showed the way to life: If
thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. (3.) Moses
received them from God, and delivered nothing as an oracle to the
people but what he had first received from God. (4.) The
lively oracles which he received from God he faithfully gave to the
people, to be observed and preserved. It was the principal
privilege of the Jews that to them were committed the oracles of
God; and it was by the hand of Moses that they were committed.
As Moses gave them not that bread, so neither did he give them that
law from heaven (John vi.
32), but God gave it to them; and he that gave them
those customs by his servant Moses might, no doubt, when he
pleased, change the customs by his Son Jesus, who received more
lively oracles to give unto us than Moses did.

VII. The contempt that was, after this, and
notwithstanding this, put upon him by the people. Those that
charged Stephen with speaking against Moses would do well to answer
what their own ancestors had done, and they tread in their
ancestors' steps. 1. They would not obey him, but thrust him
from them, v. 39.
They murmured at him, mutinied against him, refused to obey his
orders, and sometimes were ready to stone him. Moses did indeed
give them an excellent law, but by this it appeared that it
could not make the comers there unto perfect (Heb. x. 1), for in their hearts
they turned back again into Egypt, and preferred their garlic
and onions there before the manna they had under the guidance of
Moses, or the milk and honey they hoped for in Canaan. Observe,
Their secret disaffection to Moses, with their inclination to
Egyptianism, if I may so call it. This was, in effect, turning back
to Egypt; it was doing it in heart. Many that pretend to be going
forward towards Canaan, by keeping up a show and profession of
religion, are, at the same time, in their hearts turning back to
Egypt, like Lot's wife to Sodom, and will be dealt with as
deserters, for it is the heart that God looks at. Now, if the
customs that Moses delivered to them could not prevail to change
them, wonder not that Christ comes to change the customs, and to
introduce a more spiritual way of worship. 2. They made a golden
calf instead of him, which besides the affront that was thereby
offered to God, was a great indignity to Moses: for it was upon
this consideration that they made the calf, because "as for this
Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is
become of him; therefore make us gods of gold;" as if a calf
were sufficient to supply the want of Moses, and as capable of
going before them into the promised land. So they made a calf in
those days when the law was given them, and offered
sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own
hands. So proud were they of their new god that when they had
sat down to eat and drink, they rose up to play! By all this
it appears that there was a great deal which the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh; it was therefore
necessary that this law should be perfected by a better hand, and
he was no blasphemer against Moses who said that Christ had done
it.

Stephen's Address.

42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship
the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O
ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and
sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of
your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will
carry you away beyond Babylon. 44 Our fathers had the
tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed,
speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the
fashion that he had seen. 45 Which also our fathers that
came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the
Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto
the days of David; 46 Who found favour before God, and
desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. 47 But
Solomon built him a house. 48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth
not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, 49
Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what
house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place
of my rest? 50 Hath not my hand made all these things?

Two things we have in these verses:—

I. Stephen upbraids them with the idolatry
of their fathers, which God gave them up to, as a punishment for
their early forsaking him in worshipping the golden calf; and this
was the saddest punishment of all for that sin, as it was of the
idolatry of the Gentile world that God gave them up to a
reprobate mind. When Israel was joined to idols, joined
to the golden calf, and not long after to Baal-peor, God said,
Let them alone; let them go on (v. 42): Then God turned, and gave
them up to worship the host of heaven. He particularly
cautioned them not to do it, at their peril, and gave them reasons
why they should not; but, when they were bent upon it, he gave
them up to their own hearts; lust, withdrew his restraining
grace, and then they walked in their own counsels, and were so
scandalously mad upon their idols as never any people were. Compare
Deut. iv. 19 with Jer. viii.
2. For this he quotes a passage out of Amos v. 25. For it would be less
invidious to tell them their own [character and doom] from an
Old-Testament prophet, who upbraids them,

1. For not sacrificing to their own God in
the wilderness (v.
42): Have you offered to me slain beasts, and
sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness? No;
during all that time sacrifices to God were intermitted; they did
not so much as keep the passover after the second year. It was
God's condescension to them that he did not insist upon it during
their unsettled state; but then let them consider how ill they
requited him in offering sacrifices to idols, when God dispensed
with their offering them to him. This is also a check to their zeal
for the customs that Moses delivered to them, and their fear of
having them changed by this Jesus, that immediately after
they were delivered these customs were for forty years together
disused as needless things.

2. For sacrificing to other gods after they
came to Canaan (v.
43): You took up the tabernacle of Moloch. Moloch
was the idol of the children of Ammon, to which they barbarously
offered their own children in sacrifice, which they could not do
without great terror and grief to themselves and their families;
yet this unnatural idolatry they arrived at, when God gave them
up to worship the host of heaven. See 2 Chron. xxviii. 3. It was surely the
strongest delusion that ever people were given up to, and the
greatest instance of the power of Satan in the children of
disobedience, and therefore it is here spoken of emphatically:
Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, you submitted
even to that, and to the worship of the star of your god
Remphan. Some think Remphan signifies the moon, as
Moloch does the sun; others take it for Saturn, for
that planet is called Remphan in the Syriac and Persian
languages. The Septuagint puts it for Chiun, as being a name
more commonly known. They had images representing the star, like
the silver shrines for Diana, here called the figures which they
made to worship. Dr. Lightfoot thinks they had figures
representing the whole starry firmament, with all the
constellations, and the planets, and these are called
Remphan—"the high representation," like the celestial
globe: a poor thing to make an idol of, and yet better than a
golden calf! Now for this it is threatened, I will carry you
away beyond Babylon. In Amos it is beyond Damascus,
meaning to Babylon, the land of the north. But Stephen
changes it, with an eye to the captivity of the ten tribes, who
were carried away beyond Babylon, by the river of Gozan, and in
the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings
xvii. 6. Let it not therefore seem strange to them to
hear of the destruction of this place, for they had heard of it
many a time from the prophets of the Old Testament, who were not
therefore accused as blasphemers by any but the wicked rulers. It
was observed, in the debate on Jeremiah's case, that Micah was not
called to an account though he prophesied, saying, Zion shall be
ploughed as a field, Jer.
xxvi. 18, 19.

II. He gives an answer particularly to the
charge exhibited against him relating to the temple, that he
spoke blasphemous words against that holy place, v. 44-50. He was accused for
saying that Jesus would destroy this holy place: "And what if I did
say so?" (saith Stephen) "the glory of the holy God is not bound up
in the glory of this holy place, but that may be preserved
untouched, though this be laid in the dust;" for, 1. "It was not
till our fathers came into the wilderness, in their way to Canaan,
that they had any fixed place of worship; and yet the patriarchs,
many ages before, worshipped God acceptably at the altars they had
adjoining to their own tents in the open air—sub dio; and
he that was worshipped without a holy place in the first, and best,
and purest ages of the Old-Testament church, may and will be so
when this holy place is destroyed, without any diminution to his
glory." 2. The holy place was at first but a tabernacle, mean and
movable, showing itself to be short-lived, and not designed to
continue always. Why might not this holy place, though built of
stones, be decently brought to its end, and give place to its
betters, as well as that though framed of curtains? As it was no
dishonour, but an honour to God, that the tabernacle gave way to
the temple, so it is now that the material temple gives way to the
spiritual one, and so it will be when, at last, the spiritual
temple shall give way to the eternal one. 3. That tabernacle was
a tabernacle of witness, or of testimony, a figure of
good things to come, of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched,
and not men, Heb. viii.
2. This was the glory both of the tabernacle and temple,
that they were erected for a testimony of that temple of God which
in the latter days should be opened in heaven (Rev. xi. 19), and of Christ's tabernacling on
earth (as the word is, John i.
14), and of the temple of his body. 4. That tabernacle
was framed just as God appointed, and according to the fashion
which Moses saw in the mount, which plainly intimates that it
had reference to good things to come. Its rise being heavenly, its
meaning and tendency were so; and therefore it was no diminution at
all to its glory to say that this temple made with hands should be
destroyed, in order to the building of another made without
hands, which was Christ's crime (Mark xiv. 58), and Stephen's. 5. That
tabernacle was pitched first in the wilderness; it was not a native
of this land of yours (to which you think it must for ever be
confined), but was brought in in the next age, by our fathers, who
came after those who first erected it, into the possession of the
Gentiles, into the land of Canaan, which had long been in the
possession of the devoted nations whom God drove out before the
face of our fathers. And why may not God set up his spiritual
temple, as he had done the material tabernacle, in those countries
that were now the possession of the Gentiles? That tabernacle was
brought in by those who came with Jesus, that is,
Joshua. And I think, for distinction sake, and to prevent
mistakes, it ought to be so read, both here and Heb. iv. 8. Yet in naming
Joshua here, which in Greek is Jesus, there may be a
tacit intimation that as the Old-Testament Joshua brought in that
typical tabernacle, so the New-Testament Joshua should bring in the
true tabernacle into the possession of the Gentiles. 6. That
tabernacle continued for many ages, even to the days of
David, above four hundred years, before there was any thought
of building a temple, v.
45. David, having found favour before God, did
indeed desire this further favour, to have leave to build God a
house, to be a constant settled tabernacle, or dwelling-place, for
the Shechinah, or the tokens of the presence of the God of Jacob,
v. 46. Those who have
found favour with God should show themselves forward to advance the
interests of his kingdom among men. 7. God had his heart so little
upon a temple, or such a holy place as they were so jealous for,
that, when David desired to build one, he was forbidden to do it;
God was in no haste for one, as he told David (2 Sam. vii. 7), and therefore it was not he,
but his son Solomon, some years after, that built him a house.
David had all that sweet communion with God in public worship which
we read of in his Psalms before there was any temple built. 8. God
often declared that temples made with hands were not his delight,
nor could add any thing to the perfection of his rest and joy.
Solomon, when he dedicated the temple, acknowledged that God
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; he has not need of
them, is not benefited by them, cannot be confined to them. The
whole world is his temple, in which he is every where present, and
fills it with his glory; and what occasion has he for a temple then
to manifest himself in? Indeed the pretended deities of the heathen
needed temples made with hands, for they were gods made with hands
(v. 41), and had no
other place to manifest themselves in than in their own temples;
but the one only true and living God needs no temple, for the
heaven is his throne, in which he rests, and the earth is
his footstool, over which he rules (v. 49, 50), and therefore, What
house will you build me, comparable to this which I have
already? Or, what is the place of my rest? What need have I
of a house, either to repose myself in or to show myself? Hath
not my hand made all these things? And these show his
eternal power and Godhead (Rom. i.
20); they so show themselves to all mankind that those
who worship other gods are without excuse. And as the world is thus
God's temple, wherein he is manifested, so it is God's temple in
which he will be worshipped. As the earth is full of his glory, and
is therefore his temple (Isa. vi.
3), so the earth is, or shall be, full of his praise
(Hab. iii. 3), and all
the ends of the earth shall fear him (Ps. lxvii. 7), and upon this account it is his
temple. It was therefore no reflection at all upon this holy place,
however they might take it, to say that Jesus should destroy
this temple, and set up another, into which all nations should
be admitted, ch. xv. 16,
17. And it would not seem strange to those who
considered that scripture which Stephen here quotes (Isa. lxvi. 1-3), which, as it
expressed God's comparative contempt of the external part of his
service, so it plainly foretold the rejection of the unbelieving
Jews, and the welcome of the Gentiles that were of a contrite
spirit into the church.

Stephen's Address.

51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers
did, so do ye. 52 Which of the prophets have
not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed
before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the
betrayers and murderers: 53 Who have received the law by the
disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Stephen was going on in his discourse (as
it should seem by the thread of it) to show that, as the temple, so
the temple-service must come to an end, and it would be the glory
of both to give way to that worship of the Father in spirit and in
truth which was to be established in the kingdom of the Messiah,
stripped of the pompous ceremonies of the old law, and so he was
going to apply all this which he had said more closely to his
present purpose; but he perceived they could not bear it. They
could patiently hear the history of the Old Testament told (it was
a piece of learning which they themselves dealt much in); but if
Stephen go about to tell them that their power and tyranny must
come down, and that the church must be governed by a spirit of
holiness and love, and heavenly-mindedness, they will not so much
as give him the hearing. It is probable that he perceived this, and
that they were going to silence him; and therefore he breaks off
abruptly in the midst of his discourse, and by that spirit of
wisdom, courage, and power, wherewith he was filled, he sharply
rebuked his persecutors, and exposed their true character; for, if
they will not admit the testimony of the gospel to them, it shall
become a testimony against them.

I. They, like their fathers, were stubborn
and wilful, and would not be wrought upon by the various methods
God took to reclaim and reform them; they were like their fathers,
inflexible both to the word of God and to his providences. 1. They
were stiff-necked (v.
51), and would not submit their necks to the sweet and
easy yoke of God's government, nor draw in it, but were like a
bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; or they would not bow their
heads, no, not to God himself, would not do obeisance to him, would
not humble themselves before him. The stiff neck is the same with
the hard heart, obstinate and contumacious, and that will not
yield—the general character of the Jewish nation, Exod. xxxii. 9;
xxxiii. 3, 5; xxxiv. 9; Deut. ix. 6, 13; xxxi. 27; Ezek. ii.
4. 2. They were uncircumcised in heart and ears
their hearts and ears were not devoted and given up to God, as the
body of the people were in profession by the sign of circumcision:
"In name and show you are circumcised Jews, but in heart and ears
you are still uncircumcised heathens, and pay no more deference to
the authority of your God than they do, Jer. ix. 26. You are under the power of
unmortified lusts and corruptions, which stop your ears to the
voice of God, and harden your hearts to that which is both most
commanding and most affecting." They had not that circumcision
made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh, Col. ii. 11.

II. They, like their fathers, were not only
not influenced by the methods God took to reform them, but they
were enraged and incensed against them: You do always resist the
Holy Ghost. 1. They resisted the Holy Ghost speaking to them by
the prophets, whom they opposed and contradicted, hated and
ridiculed; this seems especially meant here, by the following
explication, Which of the prophets have not your fathers
persecuted? In persecuting and silencing those that spoke by
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost they resisted the Holy Ghost.
Their fathers resisted the Holy Ghost in the prophets that God
raised up to them, and so did they in Christ's apostles and
ministers, who spoke by the same Spirit, and had greater measures
of his gifts than the prophets of the Old Testament had, and yet
were more resisted. 2. They resisted the Holy Ghost striving with
them by their own consciences, and would not comply with the
convictions and dictates of them. God's Spirit strove with them as
with the old world, but in vain; they resisted him, took part with
their corruptions against their convictions, and rebelled against
the light. There is that in our sinful hearts that always resists
the Holy Ghost, a flesh that lusts against the Spirit, and wars
against his motions; but in the hearts of God's elect, when the
fulness of time comes, this resistance is overcomer and
overpowered, and after a struggle the throne of Christ is set up in
the soul, and every thought that had exalted itself against it is
brought into captivity to it, 2 Cor.
x. 4, 5. That grace therefore which effects this change
might more fitly be called victorious grace than
irresistible.

III. They, like their fathers, persecuted
and slew those whom God sent unto them to call them to duty, and
make them offers of mercy. 1. Their fathers had been the cruel and
constant persecutors of the Old-Testament prophets (v. 51): Which of the
prophets have not your fathers persecuted? More or less, one
time or other, they had a blow at them all. With regard even to
those that lived in the best reigns, when the princes did not
persecute them, there was a malignant party in the nation that
mocked at them and abused them, and most of them were at last,
either by colour of law or popular fury, put to death; and that
which aggravated the sin of persecuting the prophets was, that the
business of the prophets they were so spiteful at was to show
before of the coming of the just One, to give notice of God's
kind intentions towards that people, to send the Messiah among them
in the fulness of time. Those that were the messengers of such glad
tidings should have been courted and caressed, and have had the
preferments of the best of benefactors; but, instead of this, they
had the treatment of the worst of malefactors. 2. They had been the
betrayers and murderers of the just One himself, as Peter
had told them, ch. iii.
14, 15; v. 30. They had hired Judas to betray him, and
had in a manner forced Pilate to condemn him; and therefore it is
charged upon them that they were his betrayers and murders. Thus
they were the genuine seed of those who slew the prophets that
foretold his coming, which, by slaying him, they showed they would
have done if they had lived then; and thus, as our Saviour had told
them, they brought upon themselves the guilt of the blood of all
the prophets. To which of the prophets would those have shown any
respect who had no regard to the Son of God himself?

IV. They, like their fathers, put contempt
upon divine revelation, and would not be guided and governed by it;
and this was the aggravation of their sin, that God had given, as
to their fathers his law, so to them his gospel, in vain. 1. Their
fathers received the law, and did not observe it, v. 53. God wrote to them the
great things of his law, after he had first spoken them to them;
and yet they were counted by them as a strange or foreign thing,
which they were no way concerned in. The law is said to be
received by the disposition of angels, because angels were
employed in the solemnity of giving the law, in the thunderings and
lightnings, and the sound of the trumpet. It is said to be
ordained by angels (Gal. iii.
19), God is said to come with ten thousand of his
saints to give the law (Deut. xxxiii.
2), and it was a word spoken by angels, Heb. ii. 2. This put an honour both
upon the law and the Lawgiver, and should increase our veneration
for both. But those that thus received the law yet kept it not, but
by making the golden calf broke it immediately in a capital
instance. 2. They received the gospel now, by the disposition, not
of angels, but of the Holy Ghost,—not with the sound of a trumpet,
but, which was more strange, in the gift of tongues, and yet they
did not embrace it. They would not yield to the plainest
demonstrations, any more than their fathers before them did, for
they were resolved not to comply with God either in his law or in
his gospel.

We have reason to think Stephen had a great
deal more to say, and would have said it if they would have
suffered him; but they were wicked and unreasonable men with whom
he had to do, that could no more hear reason than they could speak
it.

Stephen's Martyrdom; Stephen's Dying
Prayer.

54 When they heard these things, they were cut
to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus
standing on the right hand of God, 56 And said, Behold, I
see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right
hand of God. 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and
stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 And
cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name
was Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon
God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell
asleep.

We have here the death of the first martyr
of the Christian church, and there is in this story a lively
instance of the outrage and fury of the persecutors (such as we may
expect to meet with if we are called out to suffer for Christ), and
of the courage and comfort of the persecuted, that are thus called
out. Here is hell in its fire and darkness, and heaven in its light
and brightness; and these serve as foils to set off each other. It
is not here said that the votes of the council were taken upon his
case, and that by the majority he was found guilty, and then
condemned and ordered to be stoned to death, according to the law,
as a blasphemer; but, it is likely, so it was, and that it was not
by the violence of the people, without order of the council, that
he was put to death; for here is the usual ceremony of regular
executions—he was cast out of the city, and the hands of the
witnesses were first upon him.

Let us observe here the wonderful
discomposure of the spirits of his enemies and persecutors, and the
wonderful composure of his spirit.

I. See the strength of corruption in the
persecutors of Stephen—malice in perfection, hell itself broken
loose, men become incarnate devils, and the serpent's seed spitting
their venom.

1. When they heard these things they
were cut to the heart (v.
54), dieprionto, the same word that is
used Heb. xi. 37, and
translated they were sawn asunder. They were put to as much
torture in their minds as ever the martyrs were put to in their
bodies. They were filled with indignation at the unanswerable
arguments that Stephen urged for their conviction, and that they
could find nothing to say against them. They were not pricked to
the heart with sorrow, as those were ch. ii. 37, but cut to the heart with
rage and fury, as they themselves were, ch. v. 33. Stephen rebuked them
sharply, as Paul expresses it (Tit. i.
13), apotomos—cuttingly, for they
were cut to the heart by the reproof. Note, Rejecters of the gospel
and opposers of it are really tormentors to themselves. Enmity to
God is a heart-cutting thing; faith and love are heart-healing.
When they heard how he that looked like an angel before he
began his discourse talked like an angel, like a messenger from
heaven, before he concluded it, they were like a wild bull in a
net, full of the fury of the Lord, (Isa. li. 20), despairing to run down a cause
so bravely pleaded, and yet resolved not to yield to it.

2. They gnashed upon him with their
teeth. This denotes, (1.) Great malice and rage against him.
Job complained of his enemy that he gnashed upon him with his
teeth, Job xvi. 9. The
language of this was, Oh that we had of his flesh to eat!Job xxxi. 31. They
grinned at him, as dogs at those they are enraged at; and
therefore Paul, cautioning against those of the circumcision, says,
Beware of dogs, Phil. iii.
2. Enmity at the saints turns men into brute beasts.
(2.) Great vexation within themselves; they fretted to see in him
such manifest tokens of a divine power and presence, and it vexed
them to the heart. The wicked shall see it and be grieved, he
shall gnash with his teeth and melt away, Ps. cxii. 10. Gnashing with the teeth is
often used to express the horror and torments of the damned. Those
that have the malice of hell cannot but have with it some of the
pains of hell.

3. They cried out with a loud voice
(v. 57), to irritate
and excite one another, and to drown the noise of the clamours of
their own and one another's consciences; when he said, I see
heaven opened, they cried with a loud voice, that he might not
be heard to speak. Note, It is very common for a righteous cause,
particularly the righteous cause of Christ's religion, to be
attempted to be run down by noise and clamour; what is wanting in
reason is made up in tumult, and the cry of him that ruleth
among fools, while the words of the wise are heard in quiet.
They cried with a loud voice, as soldiers when they are going to
engage in battle, mustering up all their spirit and vigour for this
desperate encounter.

4. They stopped their ears, that
they might not hear their own noisiness; or perhaps under pretence
that they could not bear to hear his blasphemies. As Caiaphas rent
his clothes when Christ said, Hereafter you shall see the Son of
man coming in glory (Matt.
xxvi. 64, 65), so here these stopped their ears
when Stephen said, I now see the Son of man standing in
glory, both pretending that what was spoken was not to be heard
with patience. Their stopping their ears was, (1.) A manifest
specimen of their wilful obstinacy; they were resolved they would
not hear what had a tendency to convince them, which was what the
prophets often complained of: they were like the deaf adder,
that will not hear the voice of the charmer, Ps. lviii. 4, 5. (2.) It was a fatal omen of
that judicial hardness to which God would give them up. They
stopped their ears, and then God, in a way of righteous judgment,
stopped them. This was the work that was now in doing with the
unbelieving Jews: Make the heart of this people fat, and their
ears heavy; thus was Stephen's character of them answered,
You uncircumcised in heart and ears.

5. They ran upon him with one
accord—the people and the elders of the people, judges,
prosecutors, witnesses, and spectators, they all flew upon him, as
beasts upon their prey. See how violent they were, and in what
haste—they ran upon him, though there was no danger of his
outrunning them; and see how unanimous they were in this evil
thing—they ran upon him with one accord, one and all,
hoping thereby to terrify him, and put him into confusion, envying
him his composure and comfort in soul, with which he wonderfully
enjoyed himself in the midst of this hurry; they did all they could
to ruffle him.

6. They cast him out of the city, and
stoned him, as if he were not worthy to live in Jerusalem; nay,
not worthy to live in this world, pretending herein to execute the
law of Moses (Lev. xxiv.
16), He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall
surely be put to death, all the congregation shall certainly stone
him. And thus they had put Christ to death, when this same
court had found him guilty of blasphemy, but that, for his greater
ignominy, they were desirous he should be crucified, and God
overruled it for the fulfilling of the scripture. The fury with
which they managed the execution is intimated in this: they cast
him out of the city, as if they could not bear the sight of him;
they treated him as an anathema, as the offscouring of all things.
The witnesses against him were the leaders in the execution,
according to the law (Deut. xvii.
7), The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon
him, to put him to death, and particularly in the case of
blasphemy, Lev. xxiv. 14;
Deut. xiii. 9. Thus they were to confirm their
testimony. Now, the stoning of a man being a laborious piece of
work, the witnesses took off their upper garments, that they might
not hang in their way, and they laid them down at a young man's
feet, whose name was Saul, now a pleased spectator of this
tragedy. It is the first time we find mention of his name; we shall
know it and love it better when we find it changed to Paul,
and him changed from a persecutor into a preacher. This little
instance of his agency in Stephen's death he afterwards reflected
upon with regret (ch. xxii.
20): I kept the raiment of those that slew
him.

II. See the strength of grace in Stephen,
and the wonderful instances of God's favour to him, and working in
him. As his persecutors were full of Satan, so was he full of
the Holy Ghost, fuller than ordinary, anointed with fresh oil
for the comb at, that, as the day, so might the strength be. Upon
this account those are blessed who are persecuted for
righteousness' sake, that the Spirit of God and of glory
rests upon them, 1 Pet. iv.
14. When he was chosen to public service, he was
described to be a man full of the Holy Ghost (ch. vi. 5), and now he is called
out to martyrdom he has still the same character. Note, Those that
are full of the Holy Ghost are fit for any thing, either to act for
Christ or to suffer for him. And those whom God calls out to
difficult services for his name he will qualify for those services,
and carry comfortably through them, by filling them with the Holy
Ghost, that, as their afflictions for Christ abound, their
consolation in him may yet more abound, and then none of these
things move them. Now here we have a remarkable communion
between this blessed martyr and the blessed Jesus in this critical
moment. When the followers of Christ are for his sake killed all
the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter, does
this separate them from the love of Christ? Does he love them the
less? Do they love him the less? No, by no means; and so it appears
by this narrative, in which we may observe.

1. Christ's gracious manifestation of
himself to Stephen, both for his comfort and for his honour, in the
midst of his sufferings. When they were cut to the heart, and
gnashed upon him with their teeth, ready to eat him up, then he had
a view of the glory of Christ sufficient to fill him with joy
unspeakable, which was intended not only for his encouragement, but
for the support and comfort of all God's suffering servants in all
ages.

(1.) He, being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up stedfastly into heaven, v. 55. [1.] Thus he looked above the
power and fury of his persecutors, and did as it were despise them,
and laugh them to scorn, as the daughter of Zion, Isa. xxxvii. 22. They had their eyes
fixed upon him, full of malice and cruelty; but he looked up to
heaven, and never minded them, was so taken up with the eternal
life now in prospect that he seemed to have no manner of concern
for the natural life now at state. Instead of looking about him, to
see either which way he was in danger or which way he might make
his escape, he looks up to heaven; thence only comes his help, and
thitherward his way is still open; though they compass him about on
every side, they cannot interrupt his intercourse with heaven.
Note, A believing regard to God and the upper world will be of
great use to us, to set us above the fear of man; for as far as we
are under the influence of that fear we forget the Lord our
Maker, Isa. li. 13.
[2.] Thus he directed his sufferings to the glory of God, to the
honour of Christ, and did as it were appeal to heaven concerning
them (Lord, for thy sake I suffer this) and express his earnest
expectation that Christ should be magnified in his body. Now that
he was ready to be offered he looks up stedfastly to heaven, as one
willing to offer himself. [3.] Thus he lifted up his soul with his
eyes to God in the heavens, in pious ejaculations, calling upon God
for wisdom and grace to carry him through this trial in a right
manner. God has promised that he will be with his servants whom he
calls out to suffer for him; but he will for this be sought unto.
He is nigh unto them, but it is in that for which they call upon
him. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. [4.] Thus he breathed
after the heavenly country, to which he saw the fury of his
persecutors would presently send him. It is good for dying saints
to look up stedfastly to heaven: "Yonder is the place whither death
will carry my better part, and then, O death! where is thy
sting?" [5.] Thus he made it to appear that he was full of the
Holy Ghost; for, wherever the Spirit of grace dwells, and works,
and reigns, he directs the eye of the soul upward. Those that are
full of the Holy Ghost will look up stedfastly to heaven, for there
their heart is. [6.] Thus he put himself into a posture to receive
the following manifestation of the divine glory and grace. If we
expect to hear from heaven, we must look up stedfastly to
heaven.

(2.) He saw the glory of God (v. 55); for he saw, in
order to this, the heavens opened, v. 56. Some think his eyes were
strengthened, and the sight of them so raised above its natural
pitch, by a supernatural power, that he saw into the third heavens,
though at so vast a distance, as Moses's sight was enlarged to see
the whole land of Canaan. Others think it was a representation of
the glory of God set before his eyes, as, before, Isaiah and
Ezekiel; heaven did as it were come down to him, as Rev. xxi. 2. The heavens were opened,
to give him a view of the happiness he was going to, that he might,
in prospect of it, go cheerfully through death, so great a death.
Would we by faith look up stedfastly, we might see the heavens
opened by the mediation of Christ, the veil being rent, and a new
and living way laid open for us into the holiest. The heaven is
opened for the settling of a correspondence between God and men,
that his favours and blessings may come down to us, and our prayers
and praises may go up to him. We may also see the glory of God, as
far as he has revealed it in his word, and the sight of this will
carry us through all the terrors of sufferings and death.

(3.) He saw Jesus standing on the right
hand of God (v.
55), the Son of man, so it is v. 56. Jesus, being the Son of man,
having taken our nature with him to heaven, and being there clothed
with a body, might be seen with bodily eyes, and so Stephen saw
him. When the Old-Testament prophets saw the glory of God it was
attended with angels. The Shechinah or divine presence in Isaiah's
vision was attended with seraphim, in Ezekiel's vision with
cherubim, both signifying the angels, the ministers of God's
providence. But here no mention is made of the angels, though they
surround the throne and the Lamb; instead of them Stephen sees
Jesus at the right hand of God, the great Mediator of God's grace,
from whom more glory redounds to God than from all the ministration
of the holy angels. The glory of God shines brightest in the face
of Jesus Christ; for there shines the glory of his grace, which is
the most illustrious instance of his glory. God appears more
glorious with Jesus standing at his right hand than with millions
of angels about him. Now, [1.] Here is a proof of the exaltation of
Christ to the Father's right hand; the apostles saw him ascend, but
they did not see him sit down, A cloud received him out of their
sight. We are told that he sat down on the right hand of God;
but was he ever seen there? Yes, Stephen saw him there, and was
abundantly satisfied with the sight. He saw Jesus at the right hand
of God, denoting both his transcendent dignity and his sovereign
dominion, his uncontrollable ability and his universal agency;
whatever God's right hand gives to us, or receives from us, or does
concerning us, it is by him; for he is his right hand. [2.] He is
usually said to sit there; but Stephen sees him
standing there, as one more than ordinarily concerned at
present for his suffering servant; he stood up as a judge to plead
his cause against his persecutors; he is raised up out of his
holy habitation (Zech. ii.
13), comes out of his place to punish, Isa. xxvi. 21. He stands ready to
receive him and crown him, and in the mean time to give him a
prospect of the joy set before him. [3.] This was intended for the
encouragement of Stephen. He sees Christ is for him, and then no
matter who is against him. When our Lord Jesus was in his agony an
angel appeared to him, strengthening him; but Stephen had Christ
himself appearing to him. Note, Nothing so comfortable to dying
saints, nor so animating to suffering saints, as to see Jesus at
the right hand of God; and, blessed be God, by faith we may see him
there.

(4.) He told those about him what he saw
(v. 56): Behold, I
see the heavens opened. That which was a cordial to him ought
to have been a conviction to them, and a caution to them to take
heed of proceeding against one upon whom heaven thus smiled; and
therefore what he saw he declared, let them make what use they
pleased of it. If some were exasperated by it, others perhaps might
be wrought upon to consider this Jesus whom they persecuted, and to
believe in him.

2. Stephen's pious addresses to Jesus
Christ. The manifestation of God's glory to him did not set him
above praying, but rather set him upon it: They stoned Stephen,
calling upon God, v.
59. Though he called upon God, and by that showed
himself to be a true-born Israelite, yet they proceeded to stone
him, not considering how dangerous it is to fight against those who
have an interest in heaven. Though they stoned him, yet he called
upon God; nay, therefore he called upon him. Note, It is the
comfort of those who are unjustly hated and persecuted by men that
they have a God to go to, a God all-sufficient to call upon. Men
stop their ears, as they did here (v. 57), but God does not. Stephen was
now cast out of the city, but he was not cast out from his God. He
was now taking his leave of the world, and therefore calls upon
God; for we must do this as long as we live. Note, It is good to
die praying; then we need help—strength we never had, to do a work
we never did—and how can we fetch in that help and strength but by
prayer? Two short prayers Stephen offered up to God in his dying
moments, and in them as it were breathed out his soul:—

(1.) Here is a prayer for himself: Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. Thus Christ had himself resigned his
spirit immediately into the hands of the Father. We are here taught
to resign ours into the hands of Christ as Mediator, by him to be
recommended to the Father. Stephen saw Jesus standing at the
Father's right hand, and he thus calls to him: "Blessed Jesus, do
that for me now which thou standest there to do for all thine,
receive my departing spirit into thy hand." Observe, [1.] The soul
is the man, and our great concern, living and dying, must be about
our souls. Stephen's body was to be miserably broken and shattered,
and overwhelmed with a shower of stones, the earthly house of this
tabernacle violently beaten down and abused; but, however it goes
with that, "Lord," saith he, "'let my spirit be safe; let it go
well with my poor soul." Thus, while we live, our care should be
that though the body be starved or stripped the soul may be fed and
clothed, though the body lie in pain the soul may dwell at ease;
and, when we die, that though the body be thrown by as a despised
broken vessel, and a vessel in which there is no pleasure, yet the
soul may be presented a vessel of honour, that God may be the
strength of the heart and its portion, though the flesh fail. [2.]
Our Lord Jesus is God, to whom we are to seek, and in whom we are
to confide and comfort ourselves living and dying. Stephen here
prays to Christ, and so must we; for it is the will of God that all
men should thus honour the Son, even as they honour the
Father. It is Christ we are to commit ourselves to, who alone
is able to keep what we commit to him against that day; it is
necessary that we have an eye to Christ when we come to die, for
there is no venturing into another world but under his conduct, no
living comforts in dying moments but what are fetched from him.
[3.] Christ's receiving our spirits at death is the great thing we
are to be careful about, and to comfort ourselves with. We ought to
be in care about this while we live, that Christ may receive our
spirits when we die; for, if he reject and disown them, whither
will they betake themselves? How can they escape being a prey to
the roaring lion? To him therefore we must commit them daily, to be
ruled and sanctified, and made meet for heaven, and then, and not
otherwise, he will receive them. And, if this has been our care
while we live, it may be our comfort when we come to die, that we
shall be received into everlasting habitations.

[1.] The circumstances of this prayer are
observable; for it seems to have been offered up with something
more of solemnity than the former. First, He knelt
down, which was an expression of his humility in prayer.
Secondly, He cried with a loud voice, which was an
expression of his importunity. But why should he thus show more
humility and importunity in this request than in the former? Why,
none could doubt of his being in good earnest in his prayers for
himself, and therefore there he needed not to use such outward
expressions of it; but in his prayer for his enemies, because that
is so much against the grain of corrupt nature, it was requisite he
should give proofs of his being in earnest.

[2.] The prayer itself: Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge. Herein he followed the example of his
dying Master, who prayed thus for his persecutors, Father,
forgive them; and set an example to all following sufferers in
the cause of Christ thus to pray for those that persecute them.
Prayer may preach. This did so to those who stoned Stephen, and he
knelt down that they might take notice he was going to pray, and
cried with a loud voice that they might take notice of what he
said, and might learn, First, That what they did was a sin,
a great sin, which, if divine mercy and grace did not prevent,
would be laid to their charge, to their everlasting confusion.
Secondly, That, notwithstanding their malice and fury
against him, he was in charity with them, and was so far from
desiring that God would avenge his death upon them that it was his
hearty prayer to God that it might not in any degree be laid to
their charge. A sad reckoning there would be for it. If they did
not repent, it would certainly be laid to their charge; but he, for
his part, did not desire the woeful day. Let them take notice of
this, and, when their thoughts were cool, surely they would not
easily forgive themselves for putting him to death who could so
easily forgive them. The blood-thirsty hate the upright, but the
just seek his soul, Prov. xxix.
10. Thirdly, That, though the sin was very
heinous, yet they must not despair of the pardon of it upon their
repentance. If they would lay it to their hearts, God would not lay
it to their charge. "Do you think," saith St. Austin, "that Paul
heard Stephen pray this prayer? It is likely he did and ridiculed
it then (audivit subsannans, sed irrisit—he heard with
scorn), but afterwards he had the benefit of it, and fared the
better for it."

3. His expiring with this: When he had
said this, he fell asleep; or, as he was saying this, the blow
came that was mortal. Note, Death is but a sleep to good people;
not the sleep of the soul (Stephen had given that up into Christ's
hand), but the sleep of the body; it is its rest from all its
griefs and toils; it is perfect ease from toil and pain. Stephen
died as much in a hurry as ever any man did, and yet, when he died,
he fell asleep. He applied himself to his dying work with as much
composure of mind as if he had been going to sleep; it was but
closing his eyes, and dying. Observe, He fell asleep when he was
praying for his persecutors; it is expressed as if he thought he
could not die in peace till he had done this. It contributes very
much to our dying comfortably to die in charity with all men; we
are then found of Christ in peace; let not the sun of life go down
upon our wrath. He fell asleep; the vulgar Latin adds, in the
Lord, in the embraces of his love. If he thus sleep, he shall
do well; he shall awake again in the morning of the
resurrection.